KKOA Salina Leadsled Spectacular Custom Car Show - Kansas Kandy

One of the best philosophies for building a custom car is to avoid making changes just for the sake of change. Each alteration should be purposeful and beneficial with the goal of improving a car's shape and flow.

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The same thing can be said about custom car shows. If you're going to make a change, make sure it's for the better.

For the 30th anniversary of the Leadsled Spectacular, KKOA President Jerry Titus decided to make the most significant change since moving the event to Salina, Kansas, in 2005. With encouragement from the city, Titus relocated the 2010 show from its edge-of-town home in Thomas Park, to the larger, centrally located Oakdale Park. Fortunately for all of us, the move was both purposeful and beneficial.

3/21Chris Ryan ventured all the way from South Carolina to showcase his stunning '48 Cadillac convertible, which sports a sectioned hood and frenched headlights among its many subtle modifications. A contemporary LS1 mill and Fatman front suspension with airsprings make cruising more comfortable.

The most obvious benefit was size. Oakdale Park allowed the show to spread out much more comfortably, with plenty of room for continued growth. This is good news, since official entries jumped more than 50 percent over last year's show. The final tally was more than 1,500 vehicles.

Thankfully, the new locale still has plenty of shade trees, with the added bonus of being positioned where there's a little more breeze-an important detail when it's late July in Kansas! The park also has a great circuit of cruising lanes, plenty of room for vendors, and an amphitheater that was perfect for the pinup contest and musical entertainment.

As always, there were plenty of things happening to keep car guys happy throughout the weekend. The Friday night drags have become a Salina tradition, and this year featured a cackle fest with historic front-engine dragsters and legendary drivers. A doo-wop concert on Saturday night brought a different kind of music to the air. And all weekend long you could find Linda Vaughan and Paul LeMat greeting fans, Gene Winfield chopping a top in the Godzilla Garage, or the KC Slammers showing off some genuinely cool scale-model customs.

4/21It was great to see the Kopper Kart clone out in the sunlight and among the custom fans who can truly appreciate the effort that went into recreating it.

For 30 years now, the KKOA has given custom car enthusiasts a much-needed national show to call their own. If they continue to make purposeful changes like they have recently, you'll be hard pressed to find anything more Spectacular than this annual custom gathering in Salina.